Senator Cassidy Has More Words, But No Actions, For RFK Jr.
from the do-more dept
Rinse, lather, repeat. That is supposed to be the self-serving message on the back of a shampoo bottle, but it can easily be applied to Senator Bill Cassidy’s response to all the bullshit RFK Jr. continues to pull when it comes to vaccines.
The last time we saw this was back in October of last year. In the wake of an absolutely insane press conference in which Kennedy and Trump decided to point the finger at Tylenol, of all things, as a major cause of autism spectrum disorder, Cassidy bravely took to social media and the radio to criticize the HHS Secretary for essentially not having a single fucking idea about which he was speaking… and then he did absolutely fuck all about it. And now, days after Kennedy’s CDC altered the agency’s childhood vaccine schedule recommendations, he’s once more out in public spilling all kinds of words in response.
Cassidy, a physician and longtime proponent of vaccinations, said this move will “make America sicker.”
“As a doctor who treated patients for decades, my top priority is protecting children and families. Multiple children have died or were hospitalized from measles, and South Carolina continues to face a growing outbreak. Two children have died in my state from whooping cough. All of this was preventable with safe and effective vaccines,” Cassidy wrote on the social media platform X.
“The vaccine schedule IS NOT A MANDATE. It’s a recommendation giving parents the power. Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,” he added.
Well, gosh golly gee, Senator, if only there was someone in some kind of position of power that could actually do something about it. Maybe a respected figure in the Republican majority, one who is a doctor by background and who cast and whipped up critical votes to confirm Kennedy’s appointment, who could do more than offer stern warnings about how horrible this is all going to be. I’d like to find someone like that and implore them to take action. Like… any action. Do literally anything other than flap their lips, as though that were accomplishing anything.
The incredible part of all of this is the context in which Kennedy’s betrayal of Cassidy has occurred. According to Cassidy, Kennedy committed to the following, either in confirmation hearings or to him personally:
- Not changing vaccine review processes or slowing down vaccine approvals
- Leave the CDC’s ACIP committee unchanged
- Not changing the CDC website’s language debunking misinformation about vaccines and autism
- Basing vaccine approvals and schedule recommendations on established and peer-reviewed science
Lie, lie, lie, and lie! It’s a superfecta of broken promises made to a sitting senator that has the stature, standing, and ability to do something about it. He could back the effort to impeach Kennedy, as he absolutely should. He could hit him in funding. He could haul him before Congress and demand answers, using his bully pulpit to expose the dangers further than some ExTwitter posts.
“Senator Cassidy put his personal political preservation above all by casting the deciding vote to confirm RFK Jr., even after raising many valid concerns over Kennedy’s pursuit of a dangerous anti-vaccine agenda,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care. “It is obvious that Kennedy was always hellbent on pushing vaccine misinformation to AmericansAmericans no matter how much the data and science show them to be safe and effective. And now, with each new baseless attack on vaccine safety and efficacy that Secretary Kennedy carries out — like gutting the child vaccine schedule — more American lives are needlessly put in jeopardy. Dr. Cassidy knows this better than anyone, and it’s time he backs up his empty words of ‘concern’ with serious action.”
Instead, we have Cassidy’s mere words. Inaction is tacit endorsement, as far as I’m concerned. And every day that goes by in which Cassidy continues to not lift a single finger to protect his own constituents at a minimum, and all Americans more generally, is another violation of the Hippocratic Oath he once took.
It’s “do no harm”, Senator. Not “do nothing.”
Filed Under: bill cassidy, cdc, health and human services, rfk jr., vaccines
Comments on “Senator Cassidy Has More Words, But No Actions, For RFK Jr.”
On the bright side, every day he does nothing is another day for RFKjr to bring more Democratic votes to the midterms.
Re: Brright side
Do you really, truly, believe that the MAGA crowd are not going to disenfranchise as many non-MAGA voters as they can manage once the midterms come close?
The only reason that they aren’t doing it so far is that if they do it now it gives more time to have those laws and regulations struck down. Closer to the election they can play the old “legislate, lose in court, appeal and get a stay with the appeal heard after it’s all been rendered moot anyway” game.
Re: Re: Trap
I see it coming with all the voter rolls going to the fed. The fed is going to challenge every democratic voter nationally. This means they all get 2-3 days to fix their voting registration or they cant vote the mid term. They will file challenges as close to the election as they can.
Really?
“I really, really, really mean it this time!!”
A clear message to the constituents:
“I don’t have your back.” Voting for Cassidy means not voting for your interests, even if Cassidy fully knows it. His words and deeds will be the same if he isn’t in Congress, and he will do exactly the same for his constitutuents. Namely nothing except words.
Except that possibly he will be couching his words less carefully to avoid anybody holding him to them.
In short: Bill Cassidy will likely do more for you once you rid him of his job in Congress.
Vote him out, so that he is no longer tied down by his worry of having an impact.
do most physcians share Cassidy’s view ?
are there any valid concerns about the complex issue of vaccines and traditional governnment poicies governmg their use ?
Re:
Thanks for asking! No.
Not unless there could be more vaccines scheduled in a way that insurance companies have to cover them, and pharmaceutical companies are prompted to make them. Or vaccines developed from public research with public money can be removed from the patent-o-sphere. And possibly (i don’t know) the megajabs military personnel receive due tosudden deployment somewhere might be investigated (perhaps they have been) or mitigated for those sensitive to that sort of immune training loading.
Always trust a person's actions over their words
When a person’s words clash with their actions trust their actions.
Premise 1: Senator Cassidy says that he’s terribly upset with Kennedy destroying the US’s healthcare system and putting the lives of millions of people, primarily children and the very old at risk.
Premise 2: Senator Cassidy does absolutely nothing about this other than issue statements of mild disapproval every so often.
Conclusion: Senator Cassidy doesn’t actually object to what Kennedy is doing, he’s just posturing because he thing it makes him look better than outright support.
Re: You frame it as a moral judgment
The reason to vote out Cassidy is not because he is a less than perfect human being. The reason to vote him out is premise 2: “Senator Cassidy does absolutely nothing about this other than issue statements of mild disapproval every so often.”
It is not hard to find someone voicing statements of disapproval for anything in politics. The newspapers are full of them (well, not full enough, but that’s a different story). The job of a representative is to make his convictions (even if not all of them are shared by all of his constituents) matter.
Cassidy is an absolute failure at that job. There is no point in voting for a representative who refuses to even lend support to his own convictions. He is supposed to act as more than a door post.
It does not matter why Cassidy is refusing to do anything with his mandate. He is dead weight.
Re:
… Welcome to the phony world of politicians, politics, and government
The GOP are now officially the party of “thoughts and prayers”.
Re:
These days I imagine they’d love for the party to be known for just that…
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Not sure if this is still statistically true, but at least early in 2025, the only thing polling lower than Trump’s approval rating
… was the Democratic Party’s approval rating.
Re: Each party is their own greatest enemy
From what I’ve seen people want them to actually push back, to show some energy and visible anger to match what the voters are feeling and instead the dem leadership is sticking with ‘stern letters/statement of disapproval’ as though everything is business as usual even as the country burns and they can just wait the regime out without them having to do anything.
People are mad at the republicans for what they’re doing.
People are mad at the democrats for what they’re not doing.